John and I were hiking our loads down off the Shield last fall, we were down in the rock gully just before the Manure Pile trail, when these two guys came by. They stopped to talk and asked us if we needed any help, if there was anything they could carry for us. We said no and asked them what they had just climbed. I figured the East Butt. It was about 4 in the afternoon. They said "Salathe". The had one rope and tiny little packs. I said "Salathe! When?". They replied, "Today". I busted up laughing and we both congratulated them. Before they bounded off, they asked again if we needed any help.

I had just given some other kids $20 bucks each to carry the portaledge and some other stuff down. They took a rope from John but he didn't anything else to give without taking apart his whole pack. I wasn't doing too, too badly at that point.

I was there, but I'm bummed I didn't get to see them climb. We met their two friends Patrick & Michi. They did the Zodiac in 16 hours after fixing to pitch 4 or 5 the previous day. Also, Patrick and Samuel sent Freerider on a previous visit to the Valley.

If you think about it, another thing that's pretty impressive is that it's possible (but not confirmed) that they did 10 El Cap routes, plus one Half-Dome ascent rated NP (No Poop). It would be cool to climb the captain 10 times without ever having to carry down a single poo bag.